No suspicious packages at D.C. airports

By
Michael Bolden

No suspicious packages have been reported so far on cargo planes at the Washington region's three airports, authorities said Friday, but it was still unclear if security had been heightened in the wake of reports that suspicious packages had been found on United Parcel Service airliners in other U.S. cities.

Authorities are investigating items on two UPS cargo planes at Philadelphia International Airport and another airliner at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, along with a UPS delivery truck in New York, after a suspicious package was found aboard one of the delivery company's planes in England, the company said.

Transportation Security Administration officials say they are still investigating.

Dulles does have regular UPS cargo flights in the early morning and late evening but no reports of suspicious packages had been received by Friday afternoon, said Courtney Mickalonis, a spokeswoman with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles and Reagan National.

Operations are also normal at Baltimore-Washington Marshall International Airport, said Jonathan Dean, an airport spokesman.